Sundered Souls
by Cat5isAlive
Summary: After searching for the latest cure for his curse, not all of Ranma makes it back home.  At least... not all at once.
1. Of Cures, Of Curses

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Ranma 1/2. They are owned by persons far more fortunate than I. I use them with due respect to Rumiko Takahashi and whoever else happens to share the rights to them now. I don't even own this disclaimer, so seriously, don't sue me. -Cat5

Now, on with the show!

Chapter 1

Of Cures, Of Curses

"Where th' heck **is** this place?" Ranma Saotome muttered as he trudged through the dense flora that characterized the particular region of Japan that he currently occupied. With an aggravated, jerking motion, he swung his pack around and extracted a fairly beaten looking scrap of paper from one of the small pockets. On this scrap of paper, in childlike scribbles, were markings indicative of a map of some sort. Ranma scrutinized the piece of paper, as if trying to make out a particularly difficult calculus problem.

"I swear I've followed this thing to the letter. This **should** be where it is. Where **is** that fricken' temple?" Ranma complained to the trees and shrubs. He sighed, stuffed the paper back into his pack, and defiantly marched forward.

Had the sun already set, he might have not seen the object of his quest (a good three miles further than his map had indicated). As it was, with the last of the soft lavender light cast from the sun, he spotted a ziggurat-esque construction in the distance, almost obscured by the vines and giant conifer trees covering and surrounding it.

With a rakish grin on his face, Ranma Saotome began to accelerate, gaining momentum through his abuse of the nearby tree branches. "Never gonna be a girl again! Never gonna be a girl again!" the mantra repeated over and over through Saotome's head and from his mouth as he raced towards the temple.

He slowed to a walking pace as he approached the stairs at the base of the temple. He wondered if he had pulled a Ryoga and wound up in Central America, so out of place was this erection.

"There's gotta be traps or some sorta guardian protecting this place, no **way** is this gonna be easy," Ranma thought to himself. "I'd bet Nabiki my left nut this couldn't be as easy as strollin' up there and grabbin' that diamond."

As he ascended the staircase, his muscles both tensed and relaxed at the same time into the familiar battle-ready state in which Ranma thrived. Plans for battle maneuvres and structural analysis of his surroundings raced through his head as he approached the entrance at the top of the ziggurat. Yet, no indications pointed to this being anything other than... simple. Easy, even.

Ranma shook his head. Nothing was ever that simple for Ranma Saotome. It just wasn't. Ranma could hardly go to the bathroom without winding up in a martial arts distance pissing competition with exclusively female combatants judged by his mother who would force him to commit ritual suicide if he performed less than "a man among men".

"Nuh-uh, no way, not for me it ain't." he thought as he entered the opening.

Fate had a hand in this, as it had a hand in every event involving one Ranma Saotome. This time, however, it dictated that nothing would interfere with a shit-eating grin on its face.

Resting on a pedestal, not 30 feet from the entrance to the room, illuminated by torchlight, was the object that Ranma sought. A single diamond, no bigger than his clenched fist.

"That would sell for a pretty yen," Ranma mused, but it was not for the monetary value that he sought this gem. It was for it's inherent magical properties. This pure and shining diamond was the key to his happiness. To his cure.

He approached the pedestal with caution, still distrustful of the apparent ease of his errand. As he reached the pedestal, he marveled at how it glimmered in the torchlight, casting small rainbow colored shards of light on the nearby walls and columns.

Then, quicker than untrained eyes could perceive, Ranma Saotome snatched the diamond from its pedestal. A blinding rainbow-tinted light flashed from the diamond, obscuring all but itself from his vision. A fragment of a thought passed through Ranma's mind just before he blacked out.

"Aw shi-"

~~.~~.~~.~~.~~

As Ranma drifted back into consciousness, he noticed firstly that he was half submerged in flowing water and secondly that he was currently a she. A bad way to wake up, on both accounts.

As she sat up in the stream, the rest of her brain kicked in she recalled what had happened at the altar. "I oughta known it was too good to be true." she mumbled tiredly as she brought herself to her feet and checked her surroundings.

She stood in the middle of a stream, barely wider than a couple of meters. On one side of the stream, there was an outcropping of boulders. Past that and on the other side there stood the trademark composition of a forest.

Ranma glanced around at her feet and noted that however she had gotten here, her pack had not followed. "Well, that'll make the trek home interesting, at least." she mused.

As she took her first step to exit the stream, in what she assumed was a southward direction, she faltered, almost stumbling. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

The very least she could say about her balance was that it felt off. She performed a cursory self-examination and suddenly, 'very, very wrong' seemed entirely inadequate to describe the situation.

She felt her hair stand on end as conclusions began to form in her head. She shook it furiously, rejecting the notion as impossible. Hastily, she crouched down, preparing her body for a jump. As though daring gravity to defy her will, she lept, anticipating the cool air whipping past her face, the weightlessness that came at the apex of her ascent and the view that accompanied the heights that she so desired.

None of these things came to pass. Gravity responded by all too quickly throwing her back down to the earth and landing her bottom-first into the water.

As the shock faded the realization that she had so forcibly rejected crept back into her head, weighing on her like the heaviest boulder imaginable. She had lost all of her conditioning. She had lost the fruits that ten years of labor had bore her.

_How could this have happened? Did someone hit me with a modified version of the strength-sapping moxibustion while I was out cold? _Ranma checked her back for any burn marks. She found nothing. Suddenly, it clicked. "Fuckin' shit!" she cursed. _That DIAMOND. Cure to all curses my ass._ _My conditioning is __**not**__ a curse._

She considered her underdeveloped muscle groups. "Make that **was** not a curse. Shit." Her body was in the same condition as a person who exercised infrequently, nowhere near even her most conservative standards.

_I need to head back. Maybe the hag or the old lech know some way to reverse whatever has happened to me. I'll need to be careful. I have no idea how long I can trek for in this condition. If I don't reserve enough strength, I might not be able to fend off any wild predators that populate the wilds._

She refused to go out like that. That was a fool's death, not the death of a fighter.

*****Temple of the Diamond*****

In the center of the room, a wet figure stands triumphantly with an empty plastic bottle crushed in its grasp. He takes in a deep breath and lets out a crow of victory before dashing to the entrance and out of the temple, a black pigtail trailing behind him in the wind.

~~.~~.~~.~~.~~

Short first chapter, I know. Has to start somewhere, right?

-Cat5


	2. Of Roads and Campfires 1

Chapter 2

Of Roads and Campfires

As Ranma-chan trudged through the forest, she became increasingly aware of a particularly important fact of life: human beings need to eat not infrequently. She cursed the absence of her pack, which contained a few rather useful implements for alleviating her of the uncomfortable ache in her belly.

_It's not like I can just ignore it and try to push on. In my current state, I don't have a lot of energy reserves to rely on. Carelessness could be fatal. _She gulped. _I don't have the time or tools to set up traps to catch rodents. Fishing is going to be my best bet for a decent meal by sundown. _

Finding a stream nearby proved not to be a terribly difficult task. As Ranma-chan set down to fashion herself a fishing rod, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned and saw a figure standing knee-deep in the water a few lengths downstream. The figure was clad entirely in his birthday suit with the exception of a … black and yellow headband?

Ranma-chan felt a strange surge of excitement, relief and annoyance at the appearance of the bandanna-clad bumbling wonder. The latter mostly having to do with his current state of dress.

"Hey, pork-butt!" Ranma shouted towards the naked boy, a goofy grin plastered on her face. _Aw, man he's going to be surprised to see me all the way out here! _

Ryoga turned around and hunched over with his hand shielding his eyes from the sun, as if he were trying to get a better view of who shouted at him. He then began to approach, slowly at first, then breaking into a run.

_Huh. I can't help but feel as if I've forgotten something. _Ranma-chan's forehead furrowed. _Why do I suddenly feel so on-edge? _As Ryoga's rage-filled countenance came into view, it suddenly hit her. Her eyes widened as she realized his intent.

"Ranma Saotome, prepare to die!" Ryoga roared as he charged.

_Shit! I can't handle him in my current condition. He's going to wreck me! _

"Ryoga, wait! You don't understa-" She was cut off as Ryoga's fist slammed into the left side of her jaw. She felt her feet leave the ground as she flew back from the hit. Pain resounded in her head, making it nigh impossible to maintain conscious thought. Fortunately, she was relieved of such frivolities as her flight path directed her head into an intimate meeting with a tree trunk and she crumpled to the ground.

Ryoga blinked for a few seconds as he took in what had just happened.

_ I beat Ranma? With a single blow? _Hints of a grin began to appear on his face before he came to the more likely explanation: that Ranma was toying with him- again. Ryoga sprang after Ranma-chan, arriving at the base of the tree where she lay. He hoisted her up by the scruff of her collar and pinned her against the tree.

"What are you playing at, Ranma!" He roared at her.

Ranma-chan's head lolled and fell into her chest, revealing a matted bloody patch of hair on the back of her head with streaks of crimson liquid leaking into her shirt.

Ryoga paled.

~~.~~.~~.~~.~~.~~

As Ranma-chan drifted back into consciousness, the first thing that she observed was that the air was filled with the smell of food. The second thing was that it was making her feel horribly sick. She sat halfway up and dry-heaved into the bedding she inhabited, a painful reminder that she hadn't eaten anything recently.

Convinced that being unconscious would be much better than this new reality that she found herself in, she set about bringing herself back into that blissfully unaware state. As she attempted to accomplish that, a force wrested her body up again and a foreign object forcibly inserted itself into her mouth. Violently opposed to this development, she struggled to expel said object from her mouth. Before she could force it from her, however, it quit her mouth of its own accord leaving behind a warm and thick substance. Realizing what she was meant to do, she set about to swallowing it. With great effort, she managed.

"Let's see if you can't keep that down, eh Ranma?" a deep, soothing voice implored. Ranma felt inclined to obey that voice, if for no other reason because it sounded so pleasant. Her stomach protested this new addition to its environment, but she managed to keep it from relieving itself of its contents through sheer force of will. She felt slightly better due to the less pronounced absence of food in her belly, but her head caused her unfathomable torment that made her feel still queasy while sitting up.

Tentatively, she tried to lay her head back down onto the bedding. Finding that the force that once had kept her from this action no longer remained, she hastened her descent, falling into the mat with a great thump. This proved to be a horrid, horrid idea, as her head suddenly felt as if a meteor had impacted with the base of her skull, and her vision filled with bright stars and dark yellow and red amorphous shapes.

She moaned, expressing to the world just how much she regretted her decision. She would have been angry at the chuckles that eminated from the deep soothing voice, if she were able to form any sort of concept of what it meant. As it was, she could hardly keep track of all of the aches and pains in her body. Slights to her ego were just slightly out of her realm of understanding at the moment. She instead found relief from the stability that the voice seemed to embody as she drifted off to sleep.


	3. Of Roads and Campfires 2

I don't own Ranma 1/2. Viz Media, Kitty and Rumiko Takahashi do.

Ranma 1/2 : Sundered Souls

Of Roads and Campfires: Part 2

Ryoga breathed a sigh of relief as he watched his longtime rival drift into unconsciousness. _Thank kami-sama that he's not in a coma. Akane-san never would have forgiven me. _His eyebrows furrowed. _But why on earth did he fly back from that hit? It wasn't even a sucker-punch. He took as if he weren't a martial artist. _

"What on earth happened to you, Ranma? I could have killed you." Ryoga shuddered. Despite his proclamations to the contrary, he wasn't a killer. The very idea of someone dying by his hands, on purpose or by accident, kept him up at night. He had come uncomfortably close to death a few times himself, courtesy of both of his curses.

They say that Jusenkyo curses are personalized to teach the inflicted party a lesson. Ryoga couldn't fathom exactly what he was meant to learn by being turned into a small, helpless and potentially delicious animal. Ranma's curse, however, he understood. He might not be particularly bright, but the symbolism behind it was about as subtle as a brick to the head.

Ryoga winced as the idea of head trauma crossed his mind. He prayed that the worst of the injury was behind them, because even though it hurt his pride, he knew that he wouldn't be able to get Ranma to the hospital on time should the need arise. The problem was that he didn't know what to do. The only injuries he'd ever nursed were basically cuts and scrapes. It was probably a good idea not move her, for fear of risking further aggravation to her head.

**His **head, Ryoga forcibly reminded himself. Around Ranma, pronouns started to become blurred. Intellectually and through experience, he understood that Ranma was, at his core, a man. But his gut instincts when dealing with his female form were entirely to the contrary. As a result, he made a point to exaggerate his protestations to Ranma being a woman whenever possible.

It shamed him to no end that he had even the slightest attraction to the pig-tailed martial artist's cursed form. It was enough to drive someone mad that behind that lithe, nubile body was a hotheaded, egotistical boy. It only made it worse that this half-man was stringing along 3 beautiful women, including the love of Ryoga's life, Akane!

"Akane-san..." Ryoga sighed, as cherubs frolicked behind him, "if only I could share with you my innermost, secret heart, I know that we could be happy together."

Ryoga shook himself out of his reverie as a groan elicited itself from between the lips of his longtime rival.

".. Nggh – Akane." Ranma-chan struggled slightly in her bedding, but soon came to a rest.

"You've got it bad for her too, haven't you, Ranma?" Ryoga whispered, tears in his eyes. Ryoga knew that, despite all of his protestations, Ranma really cared for Akane. The way that things were heading, with the months that had passed since the failed wedding, Ranma would be due to his move, soon. Everyone could tell that the fiancee situation had been weighing even more heavily on Ranma recently, evidenced by his insistence on being away from home so often. Whether it was searching for a cure or going off on a 'training mission', Ranma kept his distance from the Tendo Dojo more often than not. And though this would be the most optimal time for Ryoga to make his move on Akane-san, he couldn't help but feel that doing it while Ranma was away would be ... dishonorable. A low growl elicited itself from Ryoga's throat as he stared into the campfire flames. Sometimes even he was confused by his own code of honor. Damn it all.

He lay out his sleeping bag, meticulously going through his checklist of things to do before bed. He set about preparing for sleep, routinely checking on Ranma-chan to make sure that she would be fine for the night.

Finally, finished with all of his preparations and convinced that his fairweather friend and foe would survive the night, he allowed the dreamlands to take him.

~~~.~~~.~~~

At another campfire...

A pig-tailed boy sat in thought, his mind racing as he turned a small black box over and over in his hands. With all of his tactical brilliance, one would think that some of his skills would carry over into planning out how to speak to women. Just compare the conversation to a fight, he told himself. Begin the opening moves and feints, judge your opponent's intended course of action, determine the appropriate counter and then strike!

Unfortunately, Ranma Saotome had a problem. He trusted his instincts too much. This would be fine for any other individual who had **not** been raised by Genma Saotome. Circumstances being as they were, his instinctive defense when it came to using his words entailed slinging insult after insult until the opposition was worn down or fought to an acceptable standstill. This often wound up working poorly in conversations with those of the feminine persuasion.

What he was about to attempt in the next few days, however, had no margin for error. He opened the box, exposing a modest, but respectable engagement ring. He had spent the past few months saving up for it here and there. He had, on occasion, entered himself into small competitions under an alias while he was away on one of his 'training trips', squirrelling away whatever sum he acquired into a small savings account that he had opened. Living with Nabiki for two years hasn't been an entirely wasted experience, he mused.

When he had purchased this ring, he had made a promise. It was this promise that was weighing on his mind at that very instant. Whichever came first, the 3rd anniversary of their meeting, or his finding a cure, he would settle his engagements and propose to Akane Tendo. He honestly had thought that the end of the year would be the determining factor and his unexpected success in ending his curse left him slightly unprepared.

At the thought of his curse being gone, he grinned warmly, hands roaming over the contours of his chest, around his shoulders and down his hips. He revelled in the permanence of his male form. For a while, he had come to accept his curse as a part of him. He even remembered saying at one point that it was probably something that he needed. After today, however, having taken a swim in his true body, he realized that what he had been experiencing before was a form of Stockholm Syndrome. He had accepted his curse because it had seemed that no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get rid of it. Now that he was truly free, he knew there would be no lingering regrets over his erstwhile feminine form.

He eyed the pocket in his pack where he knew that the gem resided. Although it had brought him his cure, he couldn't help but feel a strange sense of foreboding that came with the apparent ease of its blessing. From all his prior experiences in magic, nothing ever wound up being quite what it appeared at first. He had examined himself thoroughly, however, and could not find any negative side effects to this cure. Unless he had some magical cancer growing inside of him (he knocked on the log he was leaning against), the whole thing had gone off without a hitch.

Now all he had to do was figure out how to break off all of his other engagements cleanly, explain his most recent absence and its ramifications, propose to Akane and make it out all in one piece.

And so the pig-tailed boy sat in thought.

**Authors Note: I promise that the next chapter will be longer, and hopefully not as far apart. I'm posting this chapter to inform everyone following this story that it is NOT dead, just moving slowly. I'm worried slightly about the quality of the writing, but even more worried about not getting anything published. So I'm going to push through the next couple of chapters and refactor them at a later time.**

**Hope your lives are going well!**

**-Cat5**


	4. Of Roads and Campfires 3

Ranma-chan woke to the sound of a low baritone singing a familiar tune. As she sat up, a damp cloth fell to her lap. She noticed that the ground surrounding her makeshift bedding in the tent was covered in a variety of medical supplies. The most notable of which was a pile of dirty bandages. She raised her hand to her head, confirming that similar bandages now covered it. They matted down her bangs and itched terribly, but she thought better of removing them. Slowly, tentatively, she hoisted herself out of bed and crawled to the exit of the green and yellow tent.

As she unzipped the tent flap a harsh, unforgiving light pierced through the opening into her unprepared eyes. She flinched briefly, then proceeded out into the opening. She found herself in an encampment a few tens of meters wide. A fire roared in the center, over which a pot with tantilizing scents cooked. She felt ravenous at the scent first, then nauseous as a pain arced through her head. She clutched her head briefly. "Oww..."

_ How on earth did I get here? _ She glanced around the camp and caught sight of a large beige pack, heavily beaten and covered with dirt. She stared at it, puzzled before she realized where she had seen it before. Suddenly, memory returned to her of her brief encounter with Ryoga. _Oh my head. Ryoga that bastard. I can't believe he gave me a- _

"Hey there, Ranma." A voice sounded from behind her. "Up already? I should've known you couldn't stand being beaten for more than a day." She turned around slowly, careful of her battered cranium as she looked upon its courier. Ryoga stood at the edge of the clearing, a bundle of sticks held in his arms. His voice sounded cocky, but his stance was slightly off. He didn't seem to know quite how to approach her.

Ranma-chan felt in no mood to play along. She felt embarrassed and ashamed of herself for having been injured as much as she had by the man standing before her. She narrowed her eyes and with a tired voice she began, "I lost my conditioning, Ryoga."

Ryoga looked taken aback. "Lost your-?"

"My conditioning. Can't ya see it in my movements? C'mon you're not that dumb." As hard as she tried, Ranma couldn't manage to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Ryoga took a hard look at her. He bit back his prepared denial and examined her. _It's true. She lacks the grace that she usually possesses in her movements. They look choppy and rigid, as if her body didn't know how to handle the signals her brain was sending._

Ranma could see the transformation occur in Ryoga's face. He at first looked skeptical, then he frowned and stared at her. She felt almost naked under his gaze. Here she was, a

top-tier martial artist without any semblance of physical conditioning. Her body, once hers to command, now refused to listen to her. She was back to the basics. Baby steps. She shifted uncomfortably, suddenly acutely aware of the stark difference in power between her and the person standing before her. She didn't have to wait long for Ryoga to break the awkward silence.

"How?"

She suddenly found that she wished that she could answer that question herself. She mentally shook herself, attempting to keep from going down pointless roads of thought.

"How does stuff like this always happen? I tried ta find a cure for my curse and it went all screwy. Again. I touched this diamond meant to 'cure any curse' and the next thing I know I'm flat on my ass in a stream with a body that a PE instructor would shake his head at." She paused to take a break, feeling and sounding now much more exasperated than she had intended.

"I'm telling ya, Ryoga, these curses are gonna be the end of us" she chuckled morosely.

"So what, are you just going to give up?" Ryoga quipped, venomously.

"Fuck no!" she snarled. "I'm gonna whip my ass back into shape and find a fuckin' cure!"

"For which curse?"

"Both of 'em!"

"Good." Ryoga smirked, "I can't exactly have my revenge on someone who would rather just lay down and die, now can I?"

Ranma looked up at him and spoke with a mixture of irritation and respect. "Yer a jerk, ya know that, Ryoga?" She rubbed her bandages "And you hit like a piledriver. My head **hurts!**"

Ryoga winced, "Sorry about that, I didn't know."

Ranma grimaced, "You couldn't have." She paused briefly before punching him lightly on the shoulder "Hey can ya get some hot water started? I really wanna get out of this form. I need ta see what kinda condition my real body is in."

Ryoga set his bundle of wood down and set to coaxing the fire up. He and Ranma shared a meal of ramen and rice. The meal had light bits of conversation throughout, mostly consisting of Ryoga keeping Ranma's spirits from falling. He knew that despite whatever front she was putting up now that she was in bad straits. He felt an obligation to nurse Ranma back to health, even if he had to play-act and boost her spirits in order to achieve that.

As they finished up their food, the tea-kettle over the fire whistled, informing them that it had completed its task. Ranma took the kettle from off the fire, careful not to burn herself. Eagerly, she raised the kettle above her head and poured the steaming liquid from its spout over her temporarily unbandaged head. As the steaming water cascaded over her head and down across her shoulder-blades, she involuntarily let out a sigh. During the cat's tongue fiasco she had grown an appreciation for just how **good **hot water felt. As it flowed down her back and across her chest, she noticed that the sensation was distinctly different. Something was missing.

As the water reached her nethers, she realized exactly what it was that was missing. Her sigh became an exhalation of all the air in her lungs. She tensed up, furrowing her brow briefly before opening her eyes. She didn't have to look down to confirm it, the sensations of her female body were too distinct for her not to be able to tell, but even if she weren't able to, it was plainly written in his face. Shock, followed by sympathy tinged with a bit of fear.

She was stuck. Again.

"Ranma-"

"Don't." She took in a deep breath, calming herself before slowly exhaling it.

"Don't start."

"Start what, Ranma?" Concern was written plainly in his face.

"Don't start treating me like one of your damsels in distress, man. Right now, I really can't handle it. It sucks enough practically being an invalid without you having to treat me like one so just-" She audibly balled up her hands into fists. "Don't."

Ryoga tensed his jaw, gave Ranma a firm gaze and nodded.

"Alright."

She nodded back. "Let's pack up and get going. The sooner we get back to Nerima, the better."

"Are you sure you should be travelling with that concussion?"

She flashed him a glare. "Ryoga. What did I **just-"**

He toughened his resolve. "Hear me out before biting my head off. **I** wouldn't travel on an injury like that, and I'm hardier than you in your prime."

Ranma bit back the venom that she had prepared to spit at him and thought for a moment.

"We'll travel until nightfall or until I tire. Whichever comes first. I won't push myself and risk further injury but we need to start getting some headway. Your supplies won't last forever."

"Didn't you bring any?"

"My pack didn't come with me on my magical 'pass out and teleport' trip."

"Shouldn't you go back and get it? Is there anything you need in it?"

Ranma gazed off to the side before returning to meet Ryoga's gaze.

"I'll come back for it. After I regain my manhood."

**Authors Note:** ** Long time since writing! I've had this sitting around for ages but I promised myself that I wouldn't publish it until it reached 5000 words, but at this point, I think I'd better keep releasing or else this won't ever get finished. I'll try to get another chapter out sometime before 2013 ;)**

**-Cat5**


	5. Of Paths and Promises

Of Paths and Promises – Part 1

"46... 47... 48.." Ranma grunted as she struggled against gravity, feeling her lower abdominal and pelvic muscles stretch and contract. And burn. Definitely burn. Her face was red with exertion as she neared the end of her set.

_Only two more_, she thought, _you can do this. _She scrunched her face up in determination as slowly, painfully, she forced her body to do her bidding. Once again, her torso rose and fell, almost but not quite reaching the ground. Her body begged her for relief from its task. She refused, shaking as she forced every last bit of strength out of her core, it wasn't enough and she grimaced as she was forced to engage her shoulders and quadriceps to finish. _Bad form._ Her torso fell with a **thwump **and she forced her breathing to slow, individually relaxing her abused muscles.

She was pleased to discover over the past week that although her conditioning had taken a turn for the worse, her awareness and control over her muscle groups had not regressed nearly as badly. _Gotta look on the bright side, when y'can. _She exhaled air from her nose dismissively, _How else could anyone survive the crazy shit I have to put up with?_

She and Ryoga had finally managed to make it out of the woods, both literally and figuratively, having found the main road just this morning. Progress was slow at first, due to the extra care they took for her condition, but after the third day of travel, she felt most of the effects of her concussion subside. Her appetite returned in full, and she started introducing basic muscle conditioning exercises into their schedule, before breakfast and dinner. Today was the peak of her rotation, she would be resting up tomorrow to ensure that she didn't sustain lasting muscular exhaustion.

Their trip so far had been made mostly in silence. Ryoga seemed hesitant to bring up anything related to Ranma's condition, which was fine by her. She really didn't want to hear it. The silence was occasionally broken by observations about their surroundings and brief conversations revolving around when to take rest and meal breaks.

As her muscles recovered enough oxygen that she was fairly confident she could move them without incurring further strain, a series of rhythmic, high-pitched squeals reached Ranma's ears. She turned to see Ryoga, in his cursed form, scampering towards her. She voiced an inquisitive "Hmm?" as he approached.

"Buhi-buhi!" he squealed as he came to a stop in front of her. The cadence of it Ranma recognized as him trying to vocalize her name. She stood up, walked over to his pack, unscrewed the thermos that he kept on hand for situations like this and poured the hot water over the pig, careful to cover her eyes as the transformation took hold. "Thanks," he said, tentatively, while grabbing fresh clothes from his pack.

Ranma grunted in response, looked thoughtful for a minute, then proclaimed, "I'll get yer other clothes," as she walked off in the direction Ryoga ran from. Ryoga did his best to look appreciative as she left before rolling his eyes as he pulled out the cookwear from his pack and started boiling the rice.

It took Ranma a few minutes of tracking Ryoga backwards, but she eventually found his clothes resting in a medium-sized puddle, next to a pile of sticks and branches. At a glance, she guessed that something caused him to move suddenly, lose his footing and fall backward into the puddle. Gathering the clothes under one arm and the sticks under the other, she made her way back to camp.

Ryoga and Ranma's camp was set up a stones throw away from the road, so that they could wave down a vehicle should they be fortunate enough to have one pass by. Ranma handed the bundle to Ryoga. He walked over to his pack, took a small mesh laundry bag out and stuffed the wet clothing inside. Ranma then placed the sticks by their makeshift fire pit, noting with some chagrin that her right arm felt relief letting go of its burden.

Ranma-chan and Ryoga set about making dinner in relative silence, as they had spent the majority of their trek so far. For the life of Ryoga he seemed to be unable to say anything that wouldn't offend the great princess Saotome. Any offer of assistance was seen as him patronizing her and any observation about their surrounding was met with one of her typical acerbic quips. As fed up as he was getting, however, he couldn't up and leave her in the woods. For one thing, that would be dishonorable and for another, having her along was incredibly helpful. As loathe as he was to admit it, her sense of direction probably saved him a few days on getting back to Tokyo, even with her conditioning slowing them down. _Maybe if she wasn't such an enormous prick about it; about everything, they could actually act like something approaching friends. _During the few instances in which they put aside their differences, Ryoga and Ranma actually had pretty good rapport up until Ranma would inevitably put his foot in his mouth. It was that habit that Ryoga hated most about him. Particularly how it affected the woman he loved. Akane-san had a heart of glass, just like him, only when it broke she turned to anger as her consoling emotion. Ranma didn't understand that his harsh, thoughtless words were emotional sucker-punches. Ryoga glanced over at Ranma, stoking the fire she had made, gazing quietly into the crackling embers. _Maybe this isn't such a bad thing. He might actually learn some humility this time around._

Ranma stared into the fire, watching as the flames crackled around the tinder Ryoga had gathered. She threw a few more sticks into the pyre, watching it stutter, momentarily, and then flare up even brighter. The fire drew her in, coaxing out her innermost thoughts. She idly observed at the edge of her vision that Ryoga had placed the pot of rice on the spit. She felt conflicting emotions regarding the bandanna-clad boy at the moment. On the one hand, she was thankful for his presence and his aid, she would not have had an easy time trekking as far as she had without him. On the other, she was irritated with him for how he treated her. He was just so damn careful about whatever he said. She could tell that he was walking on eggshells and it pissed her off. If she were a guy right now, they'd be throwing insults back and forth as if nothing was wrong. But because she was a girl right now, he had to go and treat her like one, with all of his dopey notions of chivalry. Ranma hated it when people treated him differently as a girl. He couldn't help but notice that people were more careful around her when she was female, treating her like she was delicate, giving her extra food and treating her particularly nicely. They also tried to pressure her to **be** more delicate and dainty, Sit with your legs closed, eat slowly, don't speak out or interrupt people. Obviously she ignored all of these social cues but the pressure was always there, always present in the disapproving glances of passersby and people who didn't know who she was. What he was. As a man he didn't have to worry about what people thought. He made his own rules. People didn't assume they had an open invitation to correct his behavior. If they didn't like what he did, they were the ones that had to deal with that. They were more than welcome to step up and challenge him over it, which they frequently did, and then he handed their butts back to them. Grievance settled.

She let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding and refocused on making their meal. After the rice and fish were finished, they ate, both of them expressing soft grunts of appreciation for the quality of the food. There was something uniquely satisfying about catching and preparing your dinner over a campfire at the end of the day.

Something started to build in the air, a tension of sorts, now that they had food in their bellies it seemed like both Ranma and Ryoga had something to say, but were both reluctant to speak. They found themselves staring at each other, exchanging facial microexpressions until Ryoga broke the silence. Or perhaps more accurately, the silence broke Ryoga. "I'm sick of your bullshit, Ranma Saotome." Ranma's brows furrowed and her eyes got wide, preparing for outrage. Ryoga cut her off before she began, "You tell me not to treat you like a damsel and then you go ahead and act like a princess, snipping at me for every little thing, acting like a powder keg waiting to go off. Get over yourself. Considering I was nursing your ass back to health about a week ago from a concussion, it is understandable for me to be concerned. So grow up and act like a man. Or at least an adult."

Ranma's expression darkened over the course of Ryoga's tirade. "Ya done?" She asked in a husky voice thick with emotion. Ryoga drew himself upright, crossed his arms and said, guardedly, "Yes."

"Good," Ranma began, rage creeping into her voice. "Because I'm sick of yer bullshit too. Ya ever consider I wouldn't BE in this situation if you'd taken a damn moment to listen to what I had to say? If **anyone** listened to what I had to say? Don't go insinuatin' that I'm ungrateful to you making up for th' mess **you** put me in. I told you to stop treating me like a damn flower, figures it'd take you this long to follow a simple goddamn instruction. You're as lost in how to deal with people as ya are in the rest of yer damn life."

"How **dare** you?" Ryoga roared, standing upright and rearing his fist back, body preparing to charge.

Ranma fell back into a defensive stance, "What're ya going to do, hit me again? Become a goddamn murderer?" Ranma's body tensed, preparing for the worst.

Ryoga's arm fell and he straightened up. "No, you don't get to die until you can defend yourself and I beat you fair and square. But y'know what, Ranma? You want me to treat you like a man? Then I'm going to tell it to you straight. You take everything and everyone around you for granted. You have 3 beautiful girls who follow you around everywhere you go and practically worship the ground you walk on, and you don't give any of them the time of day. You have a father who spars with you every morning and trained you from birth who you treat like shit, you have a mother who you hardly spend any time with because you're worried about disappointing her and you live in a privately owned home in the middle of Tokyo that you don't pay any rent for or contribute to in any meaningful manner. There's a beautiful woman who cooks delicious meals for you every day, and you **still **complain about everything in your life." Ryoga let out a long breath, "You're spoiled, childish, hurtful and mean and I have no clue why you mean anything to someone like Akane-san."

A pregnant pause followed Ryoga's last words, each of them glaring at the other, Ranma's face on the verge between indignant and furious. It looked for a moment as if she were going to say something, but instead, in choppy angry motions she grabbed a log, lit it in the fire, turned and stalked off into the woods. Ryoga considered calling a biting comment after her but thought better of it, deciding to leave it as it was. If she didn't come back by tomorrow afternoon, then he'd take that to mean that she wasn't coming back. He packed up the leftover food into a small plastic storage container, threw the last of the logs into the fire, unfurled his sleeping bag and settled down for the night.

An hour passed and try as he might, Ryoga couldn't manage to fall asleep. He spent most of the time twisting and turning, getting closer and farther away from the fire. With a jerk, he pulled his torso up, the open hole of his sleeping bag falling down to just below his chest. With bags under his eyes, he sighed heavily and wriggled his way out of the warm, polyester pocket. He reached down into his pack, pulled out a flashlight, flicked it on and set about looking for his nemesis. After 20 minutes of walking through the brush, worried that he had now lost his camp, he heard a rhythmic sound in the distance.

_thwack, thwack, thwack_. Thwack. Thwack. **Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. **The sound got louder as he got closer to the origin, bringing up his light on the pigtailed girl, crouched in a horse-stance, punching a thin tree repeatedly in the same spot. Ranma straightened up and turned toward the source of the light, regarding Ryoga with a neutral expression. Ryoga could see in the light that every bit of exposed skin was slick with sweat. Her chest heaved with great breaths, gradually slowing down as the two of them faced off against each other. Ranma's eyebrow quirked up as if to say "well?"

"I'm sorry," Ryoga began, "What I said back there was..." _Brutally honest? _"Uncalled for."

"Ya think?" Ranma snarled. Giving Ryoga a moment to follow up. When she was met with silence, she continued, "My life must seem pretty damn blessed from th' outside, but y'know what Ryoga? It really ain't. People treat me like shit. I've got little ta no say in what goes on. Everyone around me 's got an agenda and none of 'em have my personal well being on 'em. If I had'n ounce of control in my life it'd be one thing, but as it is..." Ranma bit back what she was about to say next, having second thoughts about opening up about her insecurities to her frenemy. "You have no right ta judge my situation with the Tendos or my relationship with my folks. I fucked up in China, alright. I should've been more careful about where I was going and when I knocked ya off that cliff I should have come down and helped ya out or somethin'. I owe you for that." Ranma swallowed, "After I recover from this," She gestured to her body, "You an' I are going to settle our differences, once and for all. No rematches, no excuses."

After a short pause, Ryoga nodded, "We should get back to camp," Ryoga started, holding out the flashlight, "Can you lead the way?"

Ranma nodded, grabbed the flashlight and started off in a direction that Ryoga was pretty sure was the wrong way, before he caught himself and followed suit. The two of them trekked back to their modest encampment just in time to catch the telltale pair of lights signaling that a truck was coming down the road.

~~~.~~~.~~~

The sound of birds chirping carried in the crisp autumn air as Ranma Saotome strode into town, canvas bag hefted over one shoulder, a determined look in his eyes. He walked with purpose, his eyes and mouth pulled into a tense grimace, a telling countenance that held both apprehension and resolution. He walked up to a white building with red banners proclaiming the shop name to the busy street, a matching red curtain hanging over the sliding door at the entrance. Steeling himself, he grabbed hold of handle, pulled the sliding door open and walked inside. The restaurant was rather empty, its only patron an old man sipping noodles in the corner. He walked up to the counter and rang the bell. A few moments passed before an old, shrivelled woman with flowing white hair rounded the corner separating the dining space from the kitchen. Her eyes took on a predatory aspect as she greeted him. "It has been a while, son-in-law."

**Author Notes:**

**Happy New Years guys! Sorry about the wait. I've been distracted with work. I started this piece back when I was in college and joining the workforce took pretty much all of my attention, but now that I'm getting into a place where I'm comfortable in my field, I'll be continuing to produce chapters at a semi-regular pace. Here's to the new year, and all that we hope to accomplish in it.**

**-Cat5**


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